


Diamond Defectors

by Agoodmoon (Mixxie)



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Illustrated, diamond Steven, mom swap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-18 19:03:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5939752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mixxie/pseuds/Agoodmoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Steven's mom is White Diamond, and Rose Quartz's rebellion succeeded.</p><p>Short drabbles about Steven's life in this AU. Not technically a momswapped story as Jasper, Lapis, and Peridot are still loyal to their Diamonds, and Rose is viewed as a villain in their eyes.</p><p>Now illustrated!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Separation

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that these are short, and jump around chronologically.

The scratch is long, jagged, covering the width of Steven’s diamond from corner to corner. Lapis runs a careful finger across it, then pulls her hand away like she’s been burned.

“You’re lucky,” She tells him, “Just a little further and she would have shattered.”

“But she did not!” Peridot says, clearly offended, “As if the great Diamond would shatter to someone lesser.” 

“Pink Diamond is hardly lesser.” Jasper scoffs, and then ruffles Steven’s hair, “Only a diamond can cut another diamond. That is why you are so precious to us.” She grins.

[](http://imgur.com/kfLNppB)

“Not just that.” Lapis hisses, stomping on Jasper’s foot, “You can’t tell a child you only value them for their abilities! Steven, we also appreciate your humor, compassion, and innovation.” She assures him.

“I know!” Steven says, grinning widely, “I care a lot about you guys too, that’s why I want to train and help you guys, so I can stop the bad guys!”

“If it was up to me, you would already be training.” Jasper frowns, then takes a seat on the motel room bed next to Peridot, “Are you watching the human camp show again?”

“Shh! Percy and Pierre are talking!” Peridot orders.

“Come on Steven, let’s leave the fangirls to their show.” Lapis says, and leads him out to the pool.

He eagerly jumps in, splashing Lapis, who responds by building a tower of water with him at the top, then releasing so he goes spinning wildly in every direction, only landing in the pool because Lapis arranges for it to happen. He bobs up, gasping between giggles.

“When are you going to train me?” He asks when Lapis picks him up and cuddles him to her chest, even though he’s not small enough for her to pick up outside of the water.

“Soon,” She says after a long pause, “It’s hard to know when. We want you to learn about humans before you learn about gems. That’s an important part of our plan. Maybe when Greg’s tour ends.”

“Dad’s always on tour,” Steven whines, “He’s a big rockstar.”

Lapis shrugs and throws Steven, then brings him back on a wave. She repeats it until he’s laughing so hard he can barely breathe.

“Do you want to go to bed now?” She asks when he slumps onto her shoulder.

“No, if I go to bed, then that means I’m closer to when you guys have to leave.” He moans, but the way he clings to her, eyes closed, tells another story.

“But you’ll also be one sleep closer to when your training begins.” She says, and uses her wings to support him up the steps and out of the water.

By the time she lays him on the motel bed he’s already fast asleep.


	2. History

The first time he hears about his mother, he’s still a little kid. Peridot is watching him while his dad tries to teach Jasper and Lapis how to setup wifi in the temple. He remembers that it’s unusual, because Lapis is usually the one to watch him, but Jasper and Peridot like to buy extravagant things when their not being watched.

Peridot tries to make him watch her dumb camp show, and when that bores him she tries her dumb high school show and dumb hospital show, until she finally gives up on TV altogether.

“Steven,” She says, and stands up from the couch, “How would you like to learn of your mother?”

He says yes of course, so she leads him to the doors and has him place his hand on the input scanner.

“This is mom’s room?” He asks, eyes wide and taking in all he can.

[](http://imgur.com/8LYDZwd)

It’s a looming, grey room, almost empty save the dias and chair at it’s center. The walls and floors are covered in odd patterns, not quite language or math but some fusion between the two, sentences turning into equations turning into symbols that Steven could not understand no matter how hard he looked.

“This is the history of our people.” Peridot explains, gesturing towards a crop of the odd symbols underneath Steven’s foot, “It’s difficult to translate, but Our Diamond did her best, she knew that the traitor would try to hide it. She didn’t want us to lose our history.”

“Wow.” Steven says, spinning to take it all in, he looks up and is shocked to see the story continues up the wall, which go so far up a dense cloud of fog covers them.

“One day, we will defeat Pink Diamond, and we will return the stories.” Peridot says, “They didn’t fight before because Pink Diamond hid them. She programmed an entire regiment of quartz so that they didn’t know the stories y’know.”

“What! Really?” Steven asks, spinning to face her, “Why did she do that?”

“Hmm,” Peridot stares down at him shrewdly, despite their half-inch in height difference, “If you were born and didn’t know your story, would you believe someone who told you a good story about yourself, or a story that was true but you didn’t like?”

“The true one!” Steven says, then pauses and rubs his chin, “But I guess, I wouldn’t know it was true would I?”

“Correct!” Peridot says, “Pink Diamond told the Quartz regiment they were created to help others, to heal the hurt and build farms.” She sneers the last thing like it’s the worst thing she's ever had to say.

“That does sound good.” Steven frowns.

“But the Quartz regiment was not created for that! They could heal, true, but they had that ability to heal battle wounds, not the ill. They were strong, but not to build things. And because Pink Diamond lied to them, she caused three regiments to shatter.”

“What?!” Steven gasps, hands on his cheeks and eyes wide.

“The Quartz regiment had been planted to help us fight against those who would see all gems destroyed. But instead they went off to other planets, and the armies fighting to protect us were destroyed. It was only the intervention of Yellow Diamond that Homeworld survived at all!”

“Woah.” Steven says, “That’s so awful!”

“Yes, it was.” Peridot agrees, “I hadn’t been formed yet of course, but it’s here, Our Diamond told me personally. Our Diamond didn’t care about what story sounded better, she cared about the truth.”

“Me too.” Steven declares, solemn like a holy vow, “No matter what, I’m going to make sure everyone knows the truth about mom and Pink Diamond.”

Peridot looks surprised for a moment, then grins, “You are a good child Steven.” She pats him on the head, ruffling his hair and he grins back at her.


	3. Surprise

The first mission Steven goes on with the Diamond Defectors is to meet Jadeite, the gem in charge of Earth. 

Jadeite, Steven learns, visits Earth every few years to make sure the Diamond Defectors aren’t killing humans and that they haven’t attempted to build any injectors. She also beats up Jasper a lot, which Jasper seems to respect judging by how she talks about her. If Steven didn’t know better he’d say she had a crush. There’s even a photo album in the temple full of snapshots of Jadeite pinning Jasper, all taken by Peridot.

Fittingly, Peridot makes sure to have her camera on hand when they get on the warp pad.

The thing is, Jadeite hasn’t visited Earth in nearly twenty years, which means that she has no clue Diamond has given her gem to Steven, or that Steven exists at all.

“The element of surprise is very important.” Jasper says, right before the warp pad activates.


	4. Edict

Thousands of years ago, Pink Diamond gave the Grand Diamond a cut so deep she nearly shattered. Diamond did not, instead she fled to Earth with her most loyal of followers, unable to to fight back, weakened by her gem’s imperfection so that even a mere Jadeite could hold her own.

The flaw, Diamond eventually decided, was not in her gem, but in herself. She was too old, her weakness too well known, what needed to be done was to reinvent herself.

So she found a human she liked, perhaps loved, and she had a child with him. She gave the child her gem, and she disappeared from the world. She left those loyal to her with a handful of last words, that seemed at the time like a prophecy.

“He will be Steven, the greatest of all humans and all gems, and he will defeat my enemies.”

[](http://imgur.com/30gWDuZ)


	5. Shield

Shield

All gems have defense mechanisms, even ones that weren’t made for fighting like pearls and zircon. It’s a way to ensure survival, as gems are not like humans that can multiply as they like. Gems had the need to conquer built into their blood, from the moment they emerged on foreign planets ready to take their orders and spread, never resting until the universe was Gem ruled. 

Diamonds are different though. They’re made to command, larger than even fused gems. A Diamond is her own defense, undefeatable by all but other diamonds. Or so they thought.

Until Rose Quartz and her rebel infantry took Yellow Diamond by storm, shattering her.

On Earth, they don’t think about Rose Quartz much. Peridot and Jasper had still been gestating on a long since destroyed planet, and Lapis was imprisoned, longing not for her diamond or her duty, but for her home.

Yet, they speak of her enough that Steven has nightmares of her. Rose Quartz bearing down on him with her shield and sword, ready to finish what Pink Diamond started. It is the nightmares that teach him how to summon his weapon.

He wakes up terrified, encased in diamond. He must have screamed, because Peridot runs in holding a bag of cheesy poofs in her underwear, her hand already on her gem. 

He can’t control his powers then, he’s still terrified, grabbing at his gem like his hand can block a sword. He doesn’t see her as Peridot for a moment, only an enemy in his home. The Diamonds branch out and pierce her.

Thankfully, her gem remains intact, falling to the floor.

He’s even more terrified now, he’s never seen them retreat into their gems, he knows she’s okay, they’ve at least explained that much, but he’s still scared, shaking and crying. His fear feeds the diamonds, they grow out further and further until the room is covered in them.

[](http://imgur.com/mz7iS2B)

“STEVEN!” Jasper manages to yell loud enough for him to hear, her crash helmet on and banging against the diamond shield.

He doesn’t know what to do, and Jasper’s banging and shouting is upsetting him more, he’s trying to hold back powers he can’t control because he doesn’t want to poof Jasper, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone.

“I don’t know what to do!” He screams, over and over while Jasper tries to break through.

It’s Lapis who manages to calm him down. She sends droplets of water underneath the diamonds until she is has enough to make a clone of herself, who picks Steven up and rocks him.

“Bye and bye, the moons is half a lemon pie, the mice who stole the other half, have scattered star crumbs across the sky,” She sang, rocking him back and forth until finally he calms, the diamond encasing them slowly crept back until finally they faded, the only proof of their existence in the cracks on the walls and Peridot’s gem on the floor.

“What was that?” Steven sobs.

“That,” Jasper declares, with a grin that twists her face into something wicked, “Is the power of White Diamond.”


End file.
